‘Civility in the Workplace’ Campaign vs. ‘Sanity in the Workplace’

  • February 13, 2012
From a VOA journalist: Re the below “Civility in the Workplace” Campaign: How amusing that VOA kicked off an “act nice” campaign just before the big RIF announcements. The future-unemployed, it seems, are expected to maintain happy faces even as they contemplate their bankrupt futures and their managers’ fat fortunes. At yesterday’s Central News meeting, David Ensor said there would be cuts in management, too.

Attrition by Fear at BBG

  • February 13, 2012
It is not likely that the Congress will pass President Obama’s budget with the insane Broadcasting Board of Governors’ proposal to end Voice of America radio to Tibet and to eliminate or make largely ineffective other VOA services, including English. BBG Watch sources inside BBG believe that International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) executives are pursuing another strategy: to get rid of as many Federal employees as possible using fear of RIFs and other subtle and less subtle intimidation tactics. This is what one inside source has sent us: Attrition by Fear “According to several sources inside the Agency, one question apparently is having trouble finding an answer:

BBG Budget Announcement

  • February 13, 2012
Subject: A Message from the Board In the past year, the men and women who work in U.S. international broadcasting have offered extraordinary coverage of the Arab Spring, conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ferment in Iran and Russia, the struggle over Tibet and other developments in China, and issues of human rights and democracy all over the world, as well as offering life-saving information during humanitarian disasters.

Expected 4.7 percent BBG budget cut and RIFs to hit rank-and-file employees and critical programs

  • February 13, 2012
BBG Watch News Commentary The proposed budget cut for the entire Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in FY 2013 is expected to be 4.7 percent and that painful RIFs (Reductions-in-Force) are unavoidable and likely to be used against rank-and-file employees, BBG Watch sources report. They are afraid that critical broadcasting and other information programs to countries without free media will be cut to protect the jobs of the International Broadcasting Bureau managers.

CUSIB Congratulates Michael Lynton on Appointment as Interim Presiding Governor

  • February 12, 2012
The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), an independent nongovernmental organization that urges the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to pay closer attention to human rights reporting, serving oppressed audiences and fair treatment of employees, has released a statement congratulating Michael Lynton on his appointment as Interim Presiding Governor.

Employees don’t buy ‘computer system is to blame’ explanation for late contractor payments

  • February 12, 2012
Judging by the content and the tone of comments to our report, “BBG orders that contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving,” IBB/BBG employees don’t buy the management’s explanation that an outdated computer system is to blame for late payments to contract employees. Those employees who have commented see the explanation as a typical ploy by the managers responsible for the problem to deflect the blame from themselves. Employees also make fun of the BBG-imposed Thanksgiving deadline for paying contract employees and vendors on time.

Broadcasting Board of Governors: The Good, The Bad, The Nonsensical

  • February 11, 2012
by The Federalist Ted Lipien’s recent op-ed piece in The Washington Times, “LIPIEN: VOA harms Putin opposition in Russia Faked interviews, lax Web security are signs a shakeup is needed,” took the Voice of America’s (VOA) Russian Service to the woodshed for its recent fiasco of posting a fake interview with a leading Russian opposition leader and dissident blogger.

BBG orders that contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving

  • February 11, 2012
BBG Watch has learned that at the Governance Committee meeting this week, the Committee adopted unanimously (all four Governors present were: Michael Lynton, Susan McCue, Dennis Mulhaupt and Victor Ashe; Lynton and McCue participated by phone) a motion directing that all contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving of this year.

Absentee member Michael Lynton pushed to become temporary Broadcasting Board of Governors chair

  • February 8, 2012
Sources tell BBG Watch that Democrats on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) are pushing for Michael Lynton, an absentee member, to become temporary BBG chair until a permanent chairman is named, whenever that may be. Lynton has distinguished himself for being the worst absentee board member. He has missed at least five BBG meetings, including the January one

Victor Ashe says treatment of contract employees by BBG executives amounts to abuse of the system

  • January 31, 2012
In an open challenge to Broadcasting Board of Governors executives who can’t stand him, BBG member Victor Ashe told the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper (“Victor Ashe advocates for contract workers“) that some contract employees at the Voice of America (VOA) have been working there 18 to 25 years. “To me, it’s an abuse of the system. They are not represented by unions or an association,” Ashe said.

Will fundraising for Obama get Dick Lobo chairmanship of Broadcasting Board of Governors?

  • January 31, 2012
BBG Watch Commentary There have been rumors that Richard Lobo, the current director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), is being considered by the White House for the position of the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). IBB and Voice of America (VOA) are some of the elements of the BBG, which manages all U.S. government-funded civilian international broadcasting and Internet news operations.

CUSIB Statement on the Resignation of BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson

  • January 31, 2012
The independent Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), which supports media freedom abroad and was opposed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) plans to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and television broadcasts to China, has issued a statement on the announced resignation of the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson.

Have a backup plan: VOA Director David Ensor on satellite TV signal jamming

  • January 27, 2012
Voice of America (VOA) Director David Ensor has commented on the Iranian jamming of VOA satellite television signals. His is a significant post since it exposes the ability of any country or even a group of people to render satellite television programs useless. That leaves the Internet and shortwave radio.

VOA Reporter Killed In Pakistan, BBG Watch urges BBG to do more to take care of contract and overseas-based employees

  • January 17, 2012
BBG Watch reporters and contributors, many of us former and current Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employees, are shocked and saddened by the killing in Pakistan of Mukarram Khan Aatif, a reporter for Voice of America’s Deewa Radio. This tragedy shows what great sacrifices Voice of America overseas-based contract employees make everyday. Mukarram Khan Aatif was a hero

‘Old white guys’ meet ‘cute young intern’ and First Amendment at the Broadcasting Board of Governors

  • January 16, 2012
A commentary by BBG Watch Cute High School Intern Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials have gotten so used to running their small federal agency like their own private country club that they still frequently forget that at least some of their meetings can now be viewed online. While the video from the last BBG meeting was streamed live, the on demand link to the video has not worked since then

Isaacson compromises in battle over public control of U.S. international broadcasting

  • January 16, 2012
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) chairman Walter Isaacson has modified some of his positions on the reorganization of U.S. international broadcasting in response to criticism and pressure from individuals and groups opposed to limiting public ownership and control of U.S. Government’s journalistic communications with foreign audiences.

Architects of BBG’s failed China plan rewarded with new positions

  • January 11, 2012
Two Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials described by BBG Watch sources as chief architects of the failed BBG plan to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and TV broadcasts to China have been rewarded with new positions. The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo named Bruce Sherman as director of a newly-formed Office of Strategy and Development. Lobo also named Jeff Trimble as IBB deputy director.

BBG seeks centralization of news output

  • January 11, 2012
The BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson and his executives love centralization and central planning. (They developed a Five-Year Strategic Plan — five-year plans, does that sound familiar?) Never mind that the surrogate broadcasters like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were established in West Germany in the 1950s as a counterbalance to the overly-centralized Voice of America (VOA) with its headquarters in New York and later in Washington, DC. BBG executives now want to undermine the independence and specialization of the surrogate broadcasters by merging them into a new large bureaucracy and creating a global news network.

BBG seeking social media newsroom contractor – consultant, possibly for friend of current manager

  • January 11, 2012
This particular announcement for a an experienced social media newsroom consultant at the Broadcasting Board of Governors strikes us as being written for a particular person who may be a friend or former associate of a BBG manager or a top-level contractor already employed by some of the former CNN executives who are taking over the management of the agency under the nepotism rule of the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson, who himself is a former CNN executive.

Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty places article about its employees’ samizdat on internal website

  • January 11, 2012
From a BBG Watch source in Prague: Incidentally, Alsou Taheri’s article, “Samizdat at Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty describes discrimination against foreigners, women and ‘old white guys’,” was very alarming to RFE/RL management. In order to fight “samizdat”, they placed the article on the Radio’s intranet system! Nothing like that has ever happened before.
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NewsChief.com on Senator Coburn, Broadcasting Board of Governors and government waste

  • January 11, 2012
As reported by NewsChief.com, federal agencies owned or leased more than 662,000 cars, vans, sport-utility vehicles, buses and ambulances, which consume about 1 million gallons of fuel per day and cost $4.6 billion per year to maintain. The NewsChief.com article, published January 8, 2012, quotes from a report by Sen

FedSmith.com links to Lobo-bonuses story, offers salary search

  • January 2, 2012
FedSmith.com, an information portal for sources of information impacting the federal community, has posted a summary of the BBG Watch report, “Leader of federal agency with lowest leadership ratings justifies cash awards for executives,” giving the article about the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo’s faulty logic hundreds of views on BBGWatch.com.